About this blog

My name is Bill Hirt and I'm a candidate to be a Representative from the 48th district in the Washington State legislature. My candidacy stems from concern the legislature is not properly overseeing the WSDOT and Sound Transit East Link light rail program. I believe East Link will be a disaster for the entire eastside. ST will spend 5-6 billion on a transportation project that will increase, not decrease cross-lake congestion, violates federal environmental laws, devastates a beautiful part of residential Bellevue, creates havoc in Bellevue's central business district, and does absolutely nothing to alleviate congestion on 1-90 and 405. The only winners with East Link are the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington and their labor unions.

This blog is an attempt to get more public awareness of these concerns. Many of the articles are from 3 years of failed efforts to persuade the Bellevue City Council, King County Council, east side legislators, media, and other organizations to stop this debacle. I have no illusions about being elected. My hope is voters from throughout the east side will read of my candidacy and visit this Web site. If they don't find them persuasive I know at least I tried.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

My First Presentation to 48th District Republicans

May 22 48th District Republicans Meeting at Bellevue Golf Club

My name is Bill Hirt.

My wife Saundraand I have lived in our current home since 1967 where we raised two
daughters.

My last elective
position was class president for 25 “class of ’57” seniors in Armstrong, Iowa.
I received an MS in engineering at ISU, worked at Boeing for 36 years
before retiring in 1998.

Since my retirement
I’ve taken 8 Rick Steve’s tours in Europe.I also spent considerable time traveling on my own before or
after these guided tours so have covered most of Europe.I mention this because it enabled me to
experience a wide variety of public transit systems.During my last 15 years at Boeing I commuted mainly on
Metro buses.This experience is
part of why I’m a candidate.In Europe everyone rode public transit.More needs to be done here.

My primary reason for running is to use the voters’
pamphlet to inform east side voters that Sound Transit and WSDOT are attempting
to perpetrate a monumental fraud with their East Link program.Prior to the Prop 1 vote the media
allowed them to lie with impunity about East Link.

The light rail installation on the I-90 bridge center
roadway will never have the capacity or the accessibility to accommodate more
than a tiny fraction of cross-lake commuters.Their planned 4th lane addition to the outer
roadways will never provide the capacity needed for cross-lake vehicles.

The only
winners are the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington and
their labor unions and the media.The
contractors fund Republicans, the labor unions fund Democrats, and Sound
Transit advertising revenue funds the media.East side legislators, King County and Bellevue City
Councilmen, and the media don’t seem to care about the disaster that awaits
commuters.

The sordid details of this debacle are included in my
blog stopeastlinknow.blogspot.com.Suffice to say Sound Transit gives a whole new meaning to the term
incompetent.Fifteen years ago
they could have moved the HOV traffic to a 4th lane on the outer
roadway and divided the center roadway into inbound and outbound bus
lanes.The bus lanes would have
had 15 times light rail capacity available from every eastside P&R.The added transit riders would have
reduced congestion throughout eastside.

Instead Sound Transit plans to spend the next 12 years
and 5-6 billion on a transportation project that will gridlock the 1-90 bridge,
devastate a beautiful part of residential Bellevue, wreck havoc in downtown
Bellevue, and do absolutely nothing to relieve congestion on 405 and I-90.

I’ve spent the last three years trying to convince the
Bellevue City Council to use their permitting process to stop East Link.Their lack of concern for eastside
residents is unconscionable.A recent Times article showed how light
rail would literally split one resident’s yard in half.The BCC recently lamented the cities
dire financial problem that will force them to delay needed capital
improvements for years.At the
same time they’re agreeing to give Sound Transit 200 million to pay for a
tunnel.

What’s also amazing is community leaders throughout east
side seem perfectly willing to go along with a project that will cause gridlock
for their constituents.My
opponent’s response when I raised these concerns was “Get over it, Sound
Transit is going to install light rail across Lake Washington come hell or high
water.”My goal in running is to
prove him wrong.

The best way to do that is to use “Social Networking”
such as Face Book to get this story out.The media will deride my candidacy.For years, the Times editorial board has refused to
even meet with me.King, Komo and
Kiro news have ignored my frequent requests for their organizations to look
into this issue.

While I welcome the opportunity to visit all the
precincts or any other public forums I’m not asking people to contribute to my
campaign or post signs of support.I’ve promised my wife she will not have to be involved in my campaign
and she is not enthused about my spending a lot of time in Olympia.I told her not to worry yet.

What I want is for those who agree with me to use their Face
Book pages to urge their friends to go to my blog
“stopeastlinknow.blogspot.com”,In
particular the “Case against East Link”.Its not just the 48th
District, it’s the entire east side that needs to say this debacle has to end.

About Me

My last elective position was class president for 25 “class of ’57” seniors in Armstrong, Iowa. I received an MS in engineering at ISU, worked at Boeing for 36 years before retiring in 1998. My wife and I moved into our current home in Bellevue in 1967 where we raised two daughters. Three years of unsuccessful attempts to persuade BCC to block EL are available on “extended session” meeting minutes. Copies of many were sent to all the media outlets, legislators, and others to no avail. I’m hoping this Web site will convince east side residents to query their own legislators.